I had forgotten my companion and all my anxieties in surrendering myself to the delight of unaccustomed colours, when suddenly Brogden said:
“Those two fellows are back with their damned boat.”
“The two Englishmen you told me about?”
“Yes, bad cess to them. They’ve done me again—for the time being. Only for the time being. I’m bound to have them. For one thing they haven’t a notion who’s on their track.”
I felt meaner than ever before. The whole squalor of the business in which I was involved came back on me, and seemed to take the colour out of the sunshine. Yet I felt I must play the hand through, however dirty my cards might be.
I was committed now to Edmund’s and Welfare’s side, and I must learn what I could, even though I should feel spotted with treachery all my life.
“What happened?” I asked.
“They got ahead of their time-table, or rather my time-table. One of my picket-boats picked them up only a few miles outside. The native rascal I was after was not with them, and there wasn’t a thing aboard that shouldn’t have been there. I’m practically certain they had a big lot of hashish with them, but they’d got rid of it. Unfortunately there was only a native officer in charge of my crowd, and naturally he got nothing out of them.”
“And what are you going to do now?”
“Oh, of course they’ve landed their rascal somewhere between this and the western frontier, and he is pretty sure to have the real cargo with him. He’s bound to make for Alexandria, and he’ll bring the stuff on camels to some hiding-place in the neighbourhood. I have every possible track watched, so I’m bound to get him.”